What timing. An Italian movie producer last year started making a film about the life of Pope John Paul. Italian film critics got their first view of the film Thursday, and liked it. The first installment - originally made
in Polish but also dubbed into Italian - is being shown in Italy. 
"Karol, a Man Who Became Pope" covers the early life of the pope, whose given name was Karol Wojtyla, and focuses on his efforts to help Jews flee Nazi persecution. At age 20, his father died,
leaving him with no immediate family. Poland at that time was dominated by Nazis. He had to study for the priesthood secretly. He clashed
with the Nazis in 1944, when his name appeared on a Nazi blacklist
for his activities in the Christian democratic underground.
The film opens with Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939.
"We were trying not to copy Karol Wojtyla, not to copy his gestures, his voice, but to give symbols to try to touch the fragments of his great personality," said Piotr Adamczyk, a Polish actor who plays the young John Paul. He told the AP: "I'm very, very happy that this film was shot in Poland because we were able to give a lot of the Polish mentality in the film - a lot of the Polish history, truthful history."
The producers say the film will be released soon on DVD and
home video.
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